Guam's public health emergency extended for another 30 days; new Covid cases continue to slow down
By Pacific Island Times News Staff
Sixty-five virus samples from Covid-19 infections on Guam were identified as variants, the Department of Public Health and Social Services said today.
DPHSS said the virus samples, collected between Aug. 10 and Sept. 30, underwent genome sequencing by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Two of the 65 samples were identified as variants being monitored (VBM), as a general term used by CDC for all variants of concern and variants of interest that are not the delta variant.
Sixty-three were identified as the delta variant of concern (VOC).
To date, 319 SARS-CoV-2 virus samples have been submitted to the CDC for genome sequencing and identified a total of 172 Covid-19 cases infected with variants.
Guam's Covid area risk score has gone down to 1.3, with new positive cases and hospitalizations continuing to slow down.
As of today, 12 patients are hospitalized with Covid- 19, including two in intensive care and one on ventilator.
Despite the downward trend, Gov. Lou Leon Guerrero has extended Guam’s state of public health emergency for another 30 days and is now scheduled to expire on Dec. 30.
"The Covid-19 pandemic remains a clear threat to our safety as a community, and we must all continue to take common-sense precautions as individuals to protect ourselves and our loved ones against this disease," the governor stated in her latest Covid-19 related executive order.
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DPHSS reported 20 new cases of Covid-19 out of 936 tests performed on Nov. 23. Seven cases were identified through contact tracing.
To date, there have been a total of 19,137 officially reported cases, 263 deaths, 1,714 cases in active isolation, and 17,160 not in active isolation. The CAR Score is 1.3.
As of Nov. 23, a total of 125,067 of Guam’s eligible population (residents 5 years and older) is fully vaccinated. 2,152 residents 5 – 11 years old received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech two-dose series. 15,543 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 8,582 doses of the Moderna and 221 doses of the Johnson and Johnson/Janssen vaccine have been administered as boosters to eligible residents.
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